Raymond B. Blake

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Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau dances with convention delegates at the 1982 Liberal Convention in Ottawa. Two years later, he would take a walk in the snow and decide to resign. (CP PHOTO/Chuck Mitchell)

40 years after his famous walk in the snow, a look back at Pierre Trudeau’s resignation

Raymond B. Blake, University of Regina

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces questions about his own political future, it’s worth remembering his father’s famous walk in the snow 40 years ago — and what fuelled his decision to quit.
Left to right, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Finance Minister Allan MacEachen and Québec Premier René Lévesque attend the constitutional conference in Ottawa on Nov. 5, 1981 — the morning after eight premiers hastily pieced together a constitutional accord. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Poling

Canada inked a landmark constitutional accord 40 years ago — and it’s still causing problems

Raymond B. Blake, University of Regina and John Donaldson Whyte, University of Regina

The constitutional reform agreement reached in November 1981 has produced a bitterness in national relations that lingers to this day and imposes on Canada a cost that has weakened the nation.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau speaks during a dramatic meeting with the entire federal cabinet and a delegation of about 200 First Nations leaders on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 1970. THE CANADIAN PRESS/R. Mac

Pierre Trudeau’s failures on Indigenous rights tarnish his legacy

Raymond B. Blake, University of Regina and John Donaldson Whyte, University of Regina

How did a national leader whose animating political spirit was protecting human rights come to adopt a passive acceptance of Canada’s worst face of colonialism?

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